Thursday, January 28, 2016

The Comforting Touch

Let me begin this by saying my dentist is wonderful!

I say that from the perspective of one who suffered much at the hands of dentists who thought anesthesia and pain medications should be administered very sparingly.My dentist now, though, takes every possible measure to ensure I am as comfortable as possible while under her care and her employees seem to share her kind and sympathetic heart.Once when I was in the dentist chair to have a cavity filled, my dentist was preparing to inject the area with a local anesthetic agent so I would be numb for the procedure. She had already placed a swab with numbing medication along the spot where the shot would be given, to minimize even the pain of the injection. As the dentist injected the medication, which burns significantly before it numbs, the assistant was gently rubbing a spot on my upper shoulder.It was a soft, gentle touch and it communicated volumes. It communicated care and concern. It communicated empathy for what I was feeling. It communicated a desire to make the situation better and a determination to act on that desire. It communicated comfort.From a physical standpoint, it activated what is called "gate-control." The gate-control theory, first proposed in 1965 by Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall, asserts that non-painful stimuli (touch, smell, taste, sight, sound) act to interfere with pain sensations from traveling to the central nervous system.Whether this is true or not, I know that when the assistant gently rubbed my shoulder, I concentrated more on the warmth of her touch than on the pain in my mouth. I felt comforted.It was such a little thing, this touch, yet I have remembered it years later so positively. It took little effort on her part and it imparted much comfort to me in receiving it. And in some way, it was from God.

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies,

and the God of all comfort;

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation,

that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us,

so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ."

(2 Corinthians 1:3-5.)

Our God is the "God of all comfort;" any comfort, any mercy, any empathy in some way finds it source in Him. And He comforts us not only because He loves us as His dear children, but so we will be able to comfort others "by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."

May I often remember that gentle stroke -- how little it was and what a big impact it had -- as I go about my day, and may I be aware and willing to let that same comfort flow from me to others.